thomas%mvac23.uucp@udel.edu (Thomas Lapp) (02/27/90)
In the Digest on Monday (V10n127), you write: > We're told by a deep-throat type that AT&T is on the war path about > their software, and that 3b2 people in particular are targeted for > 'counseling' and whatever corrective action is deemed necessary by > 'the authorities'. > [...] > When 'the authorities' come a-calling, with warrant in hand, and their > credentials in order, they start looking for Mother's source code; 3b2 > stuff and the like, and they keep looking until they find it. Exactly what are we talking about here, when one says "source code". I've worked on a 3B2-300 in grad school, and there was a lot of AT&T copyrighted stuff which came with the system. Mostly shell scripts and the like, but AT&T nonetheless. Does this mean that authorities are looking for 3B2 systems with AT&T Unix running on them? That seems a bit outlandish to me. ("sorry son, that PC Compatible has MS-DOS on it. I'm going to have to take it away from you"). I've been looking at UUCP maps lately to find out how many systems list MS-DOS as the operating system, but have run across a lot of 3B2 systems listed as home machines. That's a pretty big population to threaten. Or am I missing something here. Might we be talking about things like Unix source code in 'C' for utilities, etc. rather than just run-time images? That would seem more likely, but I thought AT&T also licenses that as well ('course if it were on your machine and you didn't have a license agreement with AT&T for it....) - tom internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu uucp : {ucbvax,mcvax,psuvax1,uunet}!udel!mvac23!thomas Europe Bitnet: THOMAS1@GRATHUN1 Location: Newark, DE, USA Quote : Virtual Address eXtension. Is that like a 9-digit zip code? [Moderator's Note: We are discussing people who do not have license agreements; people who, instead of procurring the software in the legitimate way have obtained it illicitly over the years. I started to say 'in the normal way' above; then I realized that to some people at AT&T, 'normal' these days = 'rip us off'. Let's face it: pirated software, AT&T's or otherwise, has been a scandal for years. I guess AT&T finally got fed-up with it. Coincidentally, I got a message tonight in email from someone saying Mike Andrews wants to talk to me on the phone, to 'clear up some misunderstandings'....I'll try to catch up with him Tuesday or Wednesday, and report it here ASAP afterward. A few other personal replies have come in on this topic also; one told me I had unmitigated nerve; two others asking me why I did not tell 'the complete story'..... meanwhile, Deep-Throat's original correspondence remains in my files should someone figure they can put me in the trick-bag somehow. PT]